Having become the first female winner of Young National Chef of the Year as well as having worked in kitchens such as The Ritz by the age of just 21, Ruth Hansom is still constantly reaching new culinary heights and is fast becoming one of England’s most exciting chefs.

Having enjoyed cooking since she was a young child, Hansom first found her way into the food world by taking part in Springboard’s FutureChef competition for children under the age of 16. After finishing in an impressive second place in the national final, she was offered a scholarship by Westminster college to begin her culinary training.

This soon led to Hansom doing an apprenticeship at the prestigious Ritz Hotel which she completed with distinction, leading to a full-time position in the kitchen. Everything snowballed from there with The Ritz achieving its first ever Michelin star while she worked in the kitchen as chef de partie. On top of this, a whole host of awards started coming her way including a graduate award from Craft Guild and the title of Master Chefs of Great Britain’s Young Chef of the Year in both 2013 and 2014.

In 2018 Hansom appeared on BBC’s Million Pound Menu, where she and her business partner Emily Lambert received a £1million investment in their restaurant concept Epoch. Despite the concept never coming to fruition, she was then appointed head chef of the Wernher restaurant at the Luton Hoo Hotel before moving to Pomona’s in Notting Hill where she focused on a more relaxed style of menu.

Her most recent success has come in the form of reaching the National finals of the 2020 series of BBC’s Great British Menu where she came incredibly close to taking her fish course all the way to the banquet. Despite this, the judges were impressed enough by he cooking to ask her to cook her ‘golden snitch’ themed amuse bouche at the final banquet which celebrated children’s literature.

Hansom continues to take on new challenges and is currently awaiting the opening of The Princess of Shoreditch’s new restaurant space, where she will be overseeing the kitchen.